Banana Bomb, Blackberry Gum, Dos Si Dos

First week of my inaugural grow. Excited to learn and test things out to see what goes well, and what doesn’t. Working with some stellar genetics and feminized seeds. Two (2) Banana Bombs, Two (2) Blackberry Gums and One (1) Dos Si Dos #33. Starting slow, these ladies are just wrapping up germination. 9/7 started germinating in shot glass of water with bags. 9/9 - moved into solo cups in window with bags. 9/11 - moved cups under lights. Lights: Under lowest possible light setting, which is still significant, and lights are about 32-36 inches away from plants. Water/Nutes: Just water. Regular miracle grow potting soil. Didn’t want to overwhelm to start out. Plan is to get them into 2 gal. in about a week or two. Once veg firmly takes root ;). RH has been super low, so I put my bucket of water in the tent and it increased humidity 10-12% which was great. Have small fan going. No carbon filter. Not much air circulation, something I’m thinking about. 9/12 - light spray of water on top. 9/13 - Fed with Fox Farm plant food, so rotating plant food and water for now until we get solidly into Veg. 9/14 - wrapping up week one, not due for a feeding so just letting them eat and continue sprouting up. -happy with 100% sprouts and so far so good with temps/humidity. -need more airflow

9/14 - 9/20. Elevated the sprouts this week. I felt like the sprouts were too low. One blackberry was stretching, could be stress but I felt like lights were too high. Will be doing water Sunday. Watered with food last Sunday and the cups were heavy all week but got light Saturday. Starting looking into my light dimmer and getting it dialed in. Have it at approx. 25-33% total brightness and will dial up as we go, seems to be common practice. Maybe two weeks away from transplant. Coming along though! Need more humidity. Air flow is much better but dialing back to just a fan for wind.

9/21-9/27. Weds/Thurs Noticed roots were coming out end of solo cup holes, so great sign to transplant to veg pots which are two gallon fabrics. Switching soil medium to FoxFarm Ocean Forest. Added mycorrhizae to all roots. Really expecting explosive massive veg growth over next two weeks. Cups were bone dry by Thursday so transplanted with 6.2 PH water, added fox farm veg boost, and fox farm plant food on Friday. I went light on watering Friday, should’ve maybe watered a bit more. The pots were dry on Sunday, could’ve waited another day maybe but watered at 6.4 PH and re arranged pots. There are some potential spots on one the smaller Banana Bomb. Keeping an eye on it.

9/28-10/4. Interesting week so far. Plants are loving their new pots. Drank everything in them pretty quickly. 9/30, Watered and added Foxfarm Veg. nutrients and plantfood. PH'd water to 6.3-6.4. The soil medium was extremely dry, probably due to tent conditions, hot, humid, dry with fan pointed down at soil likely drying it all out. Keeping fan pointed at wall of tent to just keep air flow. The plants drank alot of water, easily 3-4 gallons. Soil seems to be back to normal. Started LSTing most of the plants. One of the banana bombs, that was showing some early nutrient deficiency, is smaller than the other plants so far so I avoided LST and removed the germination leaves turning brown. Could be phosphorous or K deficiency. One leaf set higher has some spots but newer growth appears recovered. Could've been the weak potting soil they started in -- wanted to avoid over-nuting early but may try going straight to OF next round. None of the other plants seemed affected though. Hmm. Just gotta watch PH and new growth. For LST, I'm really wrapping the garden wire around the top cola leaf sets and pulling in one direction to open lower canopies. You could tell after just one day of LST that lower growth was picking up on that side. 10/1, topped all five plants by hand. Will let them recover the next two days then back to LST. First time topping so hope I did it correctly! Will be eagerly watching coming days. 10/3 did some LST, noticed pots were lighter 10/4 watered with 6.3 PH water. The plants are starting to grow new chutes after topping so all looks successful. Likely won’t do another topping down the road, mostly LST from here on out. Still learning LST, not 100% sure how to do it, but making plants go so that lower sections are getting direct light. Here’s to the next week!

10/5-10/11 10/6. Noticed deficiencies on the plants, thinking calcium/magnesium imo, so I fed the girls 6.2 PHd water with calmag. The most apparent deficiency is with one banana bomb. Additional Rookie blunder on the banana bomb I was fixing, I forgot to PH the water until mid way through. Gave her 7.2 water. Not end of the world but not what I want when trying to cure for def. so finished with corrected PH water. All in all, plants are getting really bushy which is perfect. Will do some LST later this week as new tops coming in. 10/8 the deficiencies are now widespread on all plants, thinking there was a serious misstep in watering. Its possible my PH was way down when watering since I wasn’t PH testing AFTER adding nutes and supps. Complete rookie mistake but at least I have some conclusion on the issues. Fed cups of water. Medium is drying out pretty bad. Top dressed with fresh soil. Did some LST as new tops are coming in. Topping worked great. 10/11 big feeding and watering today, fox farm veg, fox farm plant food, cal mag, sweet and sticky (to feed mycorrhizae and get sugars in there), and PH came to 6.2-6.4. Before I was PHing water then adding PH down, then adding notes and supps so everything was likely 5.0-5.5 which charts show cal mag def. rookie mistake. Girls tops are looking healthy, I’ll start defoliating dying leaves and hope this turns everything around. Gave about a gallon total liquid, not much runoff at all.

Week 10/12-10/18 General notes: appears to have a cal mag deficiency but getting under control after getting a good PH system down. 10/13: water around 6.3 PH, about a cup of water each, defoliating and continuing LST. Seeing at least 8-9 tops per plant at this point, seems relatively easier than I thought but won’t count chickens yet. 10/14: heavier watering 6.4 PH. About two gallons total. Spray leaves with water. 10/15-17, LST going great. Just folding down the tallest tops and uncovering lower tops to get even canopy. Banana bomb is loving the LST and getting really bushy. BlackBerry Gums handled the PH mishaps the best and seem almost fully recovered. Banana Bombs and DSD took harder hits but seem to be bouncing back. Mostly just stunting and necrosis. Most dead leaves are lower so defoliating those and lowest leaves that come right off. It’s back on track and I’m a better grower after that early mistake. One more day on the week, likely just going to LST and see if pots are light. Watered 1/2 gallon total on pots that were light.

Week of 10/19-10/25 Heavy feeding on Weds 10/21, continued LST on all plants, seeing a lot of tops, very excited. Maybe 1-2 weeks from flowering. Another heavy feeding on 10/24. Really wanting nutes to correct PH issues from prior weeks. Still seeing necrosis on mid leaves so I may have needed to go harder on notes when first spotted. 3/5 plants look fantastic but the DSD and the BB are still seeing spots and browning. Continue LST. Might transplant this coming week to 5 gallon and give it a couple days before flipping. Or another week, we shall see. Seeing a lot of tops on all plants, the LST is working like a charm. Might remove and let grow up too. We are close to flower! Just gotta get her ready with wrapping up LST, considering a trellis net, and getting PH/nutrient issues fixed.

Week of 10/26 - 11/1 10/26 continued LST and defoliating mostly necrosis leaves 10/28 Heavy feeding with nutes 10/31 transplant to 5 gallon with mycorrhizae and more FF OF soil. Watered them in with 6.3-6.4 PH water. Was a little disappointed I was expecting to see more roots. Girls are slowly recovering from prior PH issues. All plants except Dos Si Dos are recovering. Dos Si Dos looks beat up, might be excess nutes so I will be just watering next week. Likely will flip to flower next week! Excited for that. Thought about this week but figured transplant and water will help get girls ready for flower. Plus another week of veg adds to yield for sure. Coming week will be just water and defoliate, and maybe LST. Thinking I will add a net at some point as I’m seeing a dozen plus tops per plant.

Week of 11/2 - 11/8 Decided to flip to flower a week or two early, life happens! Just watering at the moment, PHd to 6.4 watered on 11/4 and 11/8 Continuing to defoliate the deficiency leaves, the new growth is showing recovery. I’d say 4 of 5 plants are doing great now. The blackberrys are by far the healthiest, saw minimal disruption with Early PH issues. Super bushy and the leave stems smell so yummy. Healthy leave and stem development. I did notice a bizarre mutation on one of them, two branches fused together and recently split. So strange but hey might turn into a monster cola. The Banana Bombs are back and kicking strong. Getting bushy, strong tops. Numerous flower sites should be a nice yielder. The dos si dos is continuing to struggle so I’m anticipating lower yield but new growth looks recovered. Might work out since issue was fixed a week or two ago. Started defoliating low growth, as Kyle Kushman says, I don’t want larf! I’m having high humidity issues, particularly at night, humidity’s getting up to mid 70s. Bought a small dehumidifier but doesn’t seem to be doing much. Moving fans around, and started using my carbon filter on a timer. Bought eva dry units so will start using that ASAP when it gets here. Really want to avoid mold issues so getting ahead of it now. Moved lights up and turn up intensity to 50% and will dial it up each week. Might do a nutrient feed next week but keeping with water for now. Considering a trellis.

Week of 11/9 to 11/15 Another good week. Still having humidity issues, even after buying dehumidifier and two evadry sticks, and cranking exhaust to half speed. Might need to get a bigger, serious dehumidifier, can’t afford mold issues. Just really shocked tbh. 11/11 watered and some defoliating 11/13 feeding with Fox Farm grow and cal mag, then phd to 6.3 11/15 watered with 6.5 PH Tested PH of runoff on the Do’s Si Dos and it’s showing 5.5. Thinking she may need a flushing to get right, that’s why she’s been struggling. Others were OK mostly around 6. Those earlier waterings mustve thrown things off but also the soil might be PHing everything down. Don’t have soil tester or PPM for nutes. Maybe a flush of higher PH, like regular tap. Might be good. Going into third week of flower, will continue defoliating. Might add bloom this week or next week. All plants except the Do’s Si Dos are back and looking great. Dos Si Dos really didn’t take the PH issues well, which again is on me. Good news is her tops are green and healthy so hoping issues get corrected after this weeks “flush”.

Week of 11/16 - 11/22 11/18, just a nice watering around 6.5. Noticed low PH in runoff, around 5.5. 11/20, good defoliation to remove lower growth, trimmed off sucker branches, removed some dying leaves 11/21, heavy nutrient feeding around 6.6 PH. Noticed low runoff again, wondering if I should water higher PH, soil might be hot with nutes bringing everything down. Going to just water next week might add some sticky sweet. Flowers are starting to show sites, there will be a lot of nice flower sites. Happy with defoliation, went lighter since it’s my first grow, didn’t want to over do it. General concerns around humidity and runoff PH. Can’t seem to get humidity down, running one small dehumidifier (150 sq ft), two Eva dry beaded dehumidifiers, and a medium/large dehumidifier (400 sq ft), and running intake around 33-50%. Might just invest in one larger unit, lesson learned to buy a more expensive, larger dehumidifier to get it down. Runoff PH is concerning, might need a flushing. Overall, the girls look beautiful, the blackberries look bushy and strong, the bananas look great, the do’s si dos is still smaller but new growth looks good.

Week of 11/23 - 11/29 11/24 - watered at 6.9 PH with sticky sweet. Went higher since runoff was super low in prior weeks. 11/26 - full feeding, all nutes, 6.7 PH 11/28 - did a light water to test PH levels of runoff since I’m still seeing some deficiency, and saw levels were super low, like low 5s so I flushed all of them with maybe 5 gallons or so, hard to say with tap water likely at 7 PH more or less. I got some of them up to higher 5s and some at 6. Just tired of the PH issues, so will be watering and lightening up on nutes to keep soil from being too acidic. Overall the Blackberry Gums look great, some bronzing on larger fan leaves but by far looks super bushy, pretty healthy and buds are starting to stack, hoping for a nice nice yield from them. These girls flower around 8-10 weeks. They look the most developed so far yet we’re just getting to halfway. Should be a fun finisher. Stems are getting nice and thick, leaves are getting big, removing some fan leaves blocking sites but leaving mostly in tact. Banana bombs look good, some smell coming through already, getting super bushy, one is a bit bigger than the other. Buds are starting to develop, will be behind the blackberry Im guessing in flowering. These girls are 7-9 weeks for flowering so we’re around halfway. Hoping these girls plump up in the next few weeks but they look good, some PH issue still showing on lower but overall looks good. Dos Si Dos is coming along, still seeing the prior PH issues, and defoliating the leaves that get too brown. But tops are developing and new growth looks good. This girl has a 8-9 week flower so we’re just getting to halfway overall the plant is coming along and hopefully just in time. Buds are super small at this point, just developing.

Week of 11/30 - 12/6 12/2, watered around 6.5-6.6 PH 12/5, watered around 6.4 PH Quiet week, just wanting to water at normal PH. Felt like some of the plants got over fed, so just watering and trying to minimize human intervention. Defoliated some bronzed leaves on the blackberries. Dos si dos seems to be coming back stronger, good looking inner buds forming and great smell. All of them have a nice smell. I’m guessing the bananas will take longest they seem to be behind the other two strains in terms of bud formation. Blackberries are forming large buds, really excited to see the next two weeks of production. Cheers!

Week of 12/7-12/13 12/8 watered at 6.4 PH 12/10, feeding with cal mag, bloom, sticky sweet around 6.4-6.5 PH 12/13, watered at 6.3-6.4 PH Lets start with the good. The smell is STRONG on these ladies. Having tent open for a couple minutes STANKS the room up! Lmao. Buds are coming in fat on the blackberry gums, those appear to be the prize plants at this point. Both plants withstood early PH issues got fat and bushy, stanky, farthest along in bud development, and getting frosty. Dos si dos is surprisingly getting nice bud spots and buds are starting to look really nice. Banana bomb are a tad behind all the others but nice bud sites. Overall, all plants have nice buds coming in, all smelling great, and buds themselves look amazing. And now the bad. There seems to be an issue or two with each plant. Most appear to be cal mag deficiencies. Though, I can’t help but wonder if I’m overwatering or over feeding. Either way, they all have burns on leaves, and some plants are getting bad brown burns and curling up. I’m hesitant to remove any leaves at this point and just thinking of riding it out. Going to just water 1-2 times this coming week and I think I’m stopping nutrients since we’re going into week 7. All the plants are supposed to be 8-9 week flowering so this is time to stop nutes. Disappointed with the nutrient and PH issues in my first grow, so hoping this doesn’t have a significant impact on yield and quality. Going to slow down on watering and hope that helps. Overall, A-OK, wish I wasn’t getting these deficiencies but buds look and smell amazing so far.

Week of 12/14-12/20 12/16 - watered with cal mag and sticky sweet with 6.3-6.4PH water. 12/20 - watered around 6.2-6.3PH. Just wrapped up week 7 of flower! Overall, buds on the blackberries are getting fat, multiple large sized colas on each plant. Hairs are starting to turn orange. Same with one banana bomb, hairs are receding and turning orange. Buds are plumpy. The one banana bomb looks like flower was either stunted or delayed but it’s starting to plump up. All plants are getting covered in trichs. Continuing to pick off deficient leaves but not too much at this stage. Girls are so deliciously smelly, omg. Mixes of gum, fruity berry, lemon, overripe bananas, diesel. It’s seriously so great to smell. I know I said I was stopping nutes but wanted to throw in one last cal mag. From there, we should have 2 weeks of watering to clear out the nutes. Need to start thinking about drying since they likely won’t finish at the same time. But getting excited. Hoping other three plump up with the blackberries. When we get closer I’ll post trich pics.

Week of 12/21-12/27 12/23 - watered around 6.4PH 12/25 - Merry Christmas mates! 12/26 - watered around 6.3-6.4PH Another muted week, I think watering twice a week was better so I was probably overwatering before. Could go 1-2 times on next go around. There is one banana bomb near the fresh air vent that is changing colors, I think from the cold air. Had a cal mag issue so it has spots but it has some nice fall color changing compared to her sister. Checking trichomes, both banana bombs are ready to harvest. Going to put them in dark for 1-2 days, see how that goes then harvest this week. The Dos Si Dos is getting super frosty and also looks close. Haven’t checked blackberries yet a lot of the hairs are still white but man heavy ass colas! Great smells all around, no issues with humidity, got it around 40-45%. Temp is chilly so added a small heater as needed. I don’t have a great dry space planned so working through that this week, wish grow tent was available but still going on other three. Should be an interesting next week as we will see a banana bomb harvest and possible dos si dos!!!

Harvested these two plants. As noted throughout, I had early PH issues which caused lockouts and acidic soil that ultimately hurt roots, growth. Still managed to get about an oz a plant, two different phenotypes with two smells and two bud structures. Would love to try this again without issue.

Only ran one of these, and it had issues like the Banana Bombs, on my part. It managed to regain strength and still produced about an oz dry. Great smell like cake.

Wow. These beauties are still curing but wow the product so far is high quality. Smell is amazing, buds turned out fantastic. Give another week of curing for final bud pics. UPDATE: wow, these were the prize plants that withstood it all. Yielded 7.5 oz off two plants. The buds STANK like dark berries, diesel, and skunk. Very pungent! I uploaded more close ups after about 4 weeks of curing. Great looking buds, loaded with hairs and trichomes and smoked great. Love this strain!